Pumpkin Muffins

Pumpkin Muffins

 

 

 

These are seriously the easiest muffins to bake.

EVER!

1 box Spice Cake Mix
15oz pumpkin (plain pumpkin)
1 bag chocolate chips

Preheat oven according to the cake mix.
Mix the cake mix and the pumpkin.
And then mix it some more.
Pour in the chocolate chips and mix some more.

Pour into greased muffin tin. I like to use the little cupcake wrappers.
Bake. For a long time. They are dense so they will tale longer to bake. The box said 18-20 minutes and I think I baked them at 30 minutes or longer. Just keep an eye on them.
They do not rise much. I ended up with 18 muffins instead of 24.

Great for a fall snack or for breakfast.

Also:
Sometimes I individually wrap them and then freeze. My Hubby likes to grab them out of the freezer frozen and take them to work. By the time he gets there and is in his morning meeting the muffins are thawed and he eats his breakfast during his meeting. Pumpkin muffins and coffee. :o)

Optional:
I bought some cream cheese frosting and turned a few into "cupcakes"

Where I Belong

I love this song by Building 429! Every time it comes on the radio I turn it up and the kids and I sing our little hearts out. Besides being all kinds of fun to sing it also delivers a powerful message.

When the going gets tough, keep your eyes focused on Jesus and remember that we're not home yet.

This isn't it.

 

Burlesque

Date night at the Power House Theatre

 

The Burlesque Alice in Wonderland

 

The Hubby and I had a great time.

I thought it would be Alice in Wonderland with a little burlesque...

It was more burlesque with a little Alice in Wonderland.

 

The costumes were amazing, the music was fun and the dancing was upbeat, energetic and oh so sexy! All the women were beautiful (the men weren't too bad either). There were some skinny-minnies. I thought it was so cool though to see "real" women dancing. They even had a few jiggles.

That. Is. So. COOL!

I have some jigglie places too.

The confidence those women have is so sexy!

I don't think I'll take up burlesque dancing but I would love to have that kind of naked confidence.

And a few of their rockin' costumes would be fun too!

Sloppy Joe-Lanterns

My friend, Tasha and I were talking after school and neither of us quite knew what we were having for dinner. Tasha mentioned Sloppy Joe's.
GREAT IDEA!
So off to the store I went.
I had to pick up Pumpkin Muffin ingredients to make with my classes. They had a great deal on all of the ingredients.
All 3 ingredients.
After I made the Sloppy Joe's I looked at my kids' plates and had a moment of brilliance. I know because Madison told me it was brilliant.

 

Sloppy Joe-Lanterns!

Domestic Violence Awareness Month

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month

 

 

Here is a website with information of domestic violence including phone numbers.

 

Domestic violence is so much more than just physical.

 

 

And happens to adults and children.

 

 

 

 

Beach Trip 2012 Part 2

 MJ: Livin' the Thug Life

 

Our view from our room

I posted these pictures because they show Benjamin being Benjamin. I have no idea what he was doing but he definitely had some games he was playing. All by himself. Running this way and that. Always with an air of seriousness.

Our view in the evening

You can see our hotel behind Sarah.

us girls

Very seriously building something

Peace Yo!

The kids' first Beach Trip!

One last look

Waving good-bye to the waves

Benjamin did not make it far before falling asleep exhausted!

Multnomah Falls

The top of Multnomah Falls

The bottom of Multnomah Falls

10k

 This weekend my friend, Tasha, her sister, Nikki, and I completed a 10k! We did The Walla Walla Marathon (but only the 10k part). It was a "Run for the Ribbon" which was a breast cancer awareness run and the proceeds were given to the hospital. I wanted to do some kind of a race before I turned 30. I turned 30 a few weeks before the race but I think it still counts because I was 29 when I signed up for it. This is a picture of us before the race. Not the best picture because I'm talking but I think it would be rather difficult to find a picture of me NOT talking. One of my kids' biggest complaints is that I talk too much...
Which makes me feel I should let you know that we didn't actually run the 10k. We walked most of it. But not all of it. Just the parts where we weren't too busy talking. :o)

Someone posted this in their yard around the last mile mark. A little deceiving since that last mile seems like the longest but it was still fun to see.
Also the volunteer traffic man that was stationed in the intersection of Fern and Pleasant was AWESOME! He would run out to high-five you and cheer for you.
"You go Girl!"
"You're almost there!"
"You look great!"
"Keep going!"
I was running at that point but loosing my "Umph" Totally gave it my all after that. Thanks, Traffic Man!
One of the cool things about running (I use that term loosely) in a race for the first time is that you will ALWAYS set a Personal Record. I finished in about an hour and a half. Sadly, it is 3x slower than my 5k time but that just means I have a lot of room for improvement. :o)
After the race I stretched out around the corner at my Aunt Patty's so I could cheer on the other racers. "The Traffic Man" was so inspiring it was contagious!

Here is us after the race. It was so cool to hear my name announced as I crossed the finish line! I think we look better here in the after photo. Maybe because I am too tired to talk at this point. Probably though it is because we spent all summer preparing for this race and as you can see here; WE TOTALLY ROCKED IT!
Tasha is talking about a half marathon now...

A Note from Tasha
Megan- I am so thankful we did the 10k! It is important to set goals and challenge ourselves. That feeling of accomplishment is very satisfying.
You are right though that last mile seemed never ending, thank goodness for that traffic man, he was awesome! I could use someone (personnal trainer) in my life to yell out those encouraging words all the time!
We had a goal and we stuck to it! Thanks for all your time and work. I am happy we did it...who knows next yr it may be that 1/2 marathon! The proceeds went to cancer and I was happy to donate! Thanks Megan and Nikki for the support